19th October 2015

We have a front deck...and we did it all ourselves!

For the last 3 weekends, we have spent hours working outside in the heat building our first deck together. We originally had quotes to get someone to build it for us, but we decided in the end to have a go at it ourselves and save some money. We didn't have a lot of height to work with (only 90mm in fact) which made the job a little tricky. It also didn't help that the verandah wasn't square. It's not perfect and there are a couple of things we wish we had done, but we think it looks great and we are super happy with the result. Everything we used was bought from Bunnings. Only 1 x coat of stain has been put on so far. I will be putting the 2nd coat on this weekend. The deck colour will eventually match our front door, the timber on the facade and the garage door.

Our next job will be to finish off the retaining walls, then we can finally get some plants in :)

Digging up the grass was so much fun in 40 degree heat...NOT!

This isn't stained...just wet from hosing away all the dust.

Finishing off with the framing!

First coat of stain going on!

This is the finished result with 1 x coat of stain!

3rd September 2015

Happy Anniversary to us!

Can't believe we have been in our house for 2 years already. The time has absolutely flown by.

So excited now that Spring has sprung so we can finally head outdoors again. We still have all our landscaping to do and want to finish off decorating inside too. 

Sorry it's been a long time between posts, but things were tough there for a while. We are finally back on track and can't wait to get back into it.

More to come soon :)

051b902929b4cb6f4b8a61b3808e680f0a29b7b95f7153ac4b

14th November 2014

Last weekend was spent doing more work outside on the retaining wall and letterbox. The letterbox just needs to be capped off on top and the retaining wall just needs a few more caps and it will be ready for sealing and bagging. We have decided we are going to tackle the painting / bagging ourselves. We had quotes for rendering, but its just not affordable at this stage. One of them was $1,800 and one was $800. Big difference!

Tomorrow we will finish it off and then seal it.

28th October 2014

Were getting there slowly...

We finished laying the besser blocks on the weekend for the retaining wall on the left side of the driveway (facing the street). Pete started on the letterbox and is almost done. It was too hot for him to finish it off...lol...it was only 36 degrees. Any excuse! If you're reading this honey...I love you ;)

I've started to make some calls to get some quotes for rendering or bagging the wall. Not sure which look to go for. Eventually we want to render the whole front of the house, so we figured rendering the retaining wall would be best, but that could be a long way off, so bagging might be the way to go. At least it would match our facade. We will probably go with whatever is cheapest. I would love to give it a go myself, but I don't feel comfortable doing it as I have never seen it done before.

Pete also almost finished off laying the foundation for the retaining wall on the right side of the driveway. We just need to buy more besser blocks as we have run out. It's surprising how much bigger the front yard looks with the wall up. I would have thought it would have closed it in and made it look smaller, but it is the complete opposite, which is great.

I finished painting the fence on the right side (facing the street). I however did get out there in the heat, but I was clever and put the umbrella up, so it wasn't too bad. I'll be glad when I finish the rest off. It's a painful process, but all the hard work is worth it. It would be a lot easier using a spray gun, but the one I bought is crap, so I have hand painted every single paling.

We had the MJH maintenance guy out this last week too. He is coming back again next week to finish off everything. I was surprised when MJH said he would be back for the day. It might even have to be a 3rd day.

We also had our driveway guys come back and reseal our driveway for us which was nice. We had a few hairline cracks (damn clay) and the crossover needed some solution on it to stop it flaking.

I decided to go for a drive today up to the new Sydney Business Park at Marsden Park, which is a only a 5 min drive from home. Ikea and Bunnings are coming along nicely and before too long, Costco and Masters will be on the way. Very exciting have these shopping heavens so close to home.

New Ikea being built

New Bunnings being built

New Ikea being built...looks huge

16th October 2014

After 6 weeks of not hearing from MJH about our maintenance, I ended up emailing them and finally got an answer yesterday. We have another maintenance fix scheduled in for next Friday 24th. Hopefully everything will be fixed properly this time, so we can finally move on.

On a good note, things have progressed further with our retaining wall and fence painting. We still have a long way to go. Hopefully it will be finished before Summer kicks in.

Michelle Timbs if you are reading this, I thought I would try painting the columns on our facade in Monument like yours. Well I did and it looked horrendous...lol. Made the house look a lot smaller and really ugly. It was so bad I painted over them straight away with the original colour.

Some progress pics...

5th October 2014

Thought I would post some progress pics of the retaining wall and fence and thanks to my dad, we now have side gates. It's handy having a sheet metal worker for a dad :) All we need to do is finish painting them, then get some timber on them. Really hoping we can finish them soon as I'm getting sick of chasing a 2 yr old around the house and down the street.

I've managed to finish painting the back fence and almost there done with the left side. There is still a lot more to go though. Unfortunately we ran out of besser blocks yesterday, so we couldn't finish off the wall. Was surprised to see the place that we got the besser blocks from closed on a Sunday. We will have to wait yet another week before its finished. Really not sure what colour to paint the wall yet. I don't know whether to match the facade or go a darker colour for some contrast. I would prefer a darker colour because it would make the gardens 'pop'.